Ribbon supporting troops takes on a new meaning

I did not get caught up in the fad in which many of us put on our cars a ribbon that proclaimed support for our troops. I was not against the war in Iraq or Afghanistan; I just didn't get one of those ribbons.

I saw them over and over, and still do, but for whatever reason, no ribbon has ever been on my car. I paid little or no attention to this fad.

I parked my car in a lot where parking was perpendicular to the curb the other day and had to wait to get out while a young mother finished securing her two little blond kiddies in their car seats adjacent to my car door. I was near Pearl Harbor, and this young woman was obviously a military wife.

Once she got squared away, I got out of my car and looked while she drove off. As she did, the yellow ribbon on her car came into full view and I looked at it. It said, "Keep Daddy Safe."

Those words spoke to me. Suddenly, I felt the concern of that mommy and those two kiddies for their daddy. I immediately prayed that God would keep that daddy safe.

Since that day, I have become sensitive to yellow ribbons. Now when I see one, I stop and pray, "Keep daddy safe; keep mommy safe. Fill all the voids in hearts and homes where one of the parents is off safeguarding our country and our ways."

Ribbons can be political statements, and patriotic ones, too. But that day I learned that some of those ribbons are prayers that have an urgency and depth. It calls all of us to kneel at the throne of grace and ask protection for all those mommies and daddies who are not home at this time in history.

Would you join me? "Father God, would you keep mommy safe and daddy safe today and every day?"